What is an end of life doula?

An end of life doula is a non-medical professional who attends to the emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of a person who is dying. Their job is to companion a person with a life-limiting illness, advocate for their wishes, and provide resources, comfort, and information. They are separate from and complimentary to a hospice care team. Unlike a hospice team, an end of life doula can companion a client at any time, including when a prognosis is longer than 6 months.

Services may include:

• Creating a vigil and sitting vigil

• Scheduling a client’s care team

• Providing meaningful enrichment activities

• Creating a legacy project

• Providing respite care for loved ones

• Light housework and pet care

• Providing emotional, psychological, and spiritual support

Why doula services?

When you or a loved one are dying, grief is a full-time job. End of life doulas have specialized skills, knowledge, and training to empower a person with a life-limiting illness and their loved ones to advocate for themselves in the medical/funeral industry and to create more space for you to stay present with what matters most. While compassionate and caring, doulas are less personally attached to their clients than a  loved one would be. This separation allows for a different kind of relationship than a family caretaker. The doula can focus on their client’s needs, while a loved one needs time to be with their own experience. 

Who is this for?

At Ginkgo, we strive to support our clients in embracing life up to their very last breath. We recognize that everyone stands to benefit from getting close with death and dying, and we have a range of offerings from facilitating open conversations on death and dying, to living funerals, to planning vigils and other EOL doula services. 

Some of our services are designed expressly for those at the end of their lives, while many others are applicable for people who wish simply to receive the gifts of perspective offered by guided contemplation of mortality.

Can I customize your services?

Yes! All of our services are highly customizable for your needs and budget. If you have a specific request that you do not see listed on our site, please contact us for a free consultation, and we’ll let you know if it’s within our capacity to make it happen. If not, we might be able to refer you to someone who can.

Do I need to be located in Austin, TX to use your services?

No, you do not. Many of our services can be offered remotely via video conferencing or phone, including: living funerals, death coaching, experience design, and dignity therapy. Travel to you may also be possible.

Some History and Context for the End of Life Movement

Death positivity is a movement towards bringing death out of the shadows, and into the light of everyday life. It is a compassionate response to the way in which our culture has stigmatized death as a forbidden topic of conversation and exiled the process of dying to hospitals and the dead to funeral homes. This process of sheltering us from the impact of death has taken the dead away from the eyes and hands of the grieving, depriving us of the natural course of our emotions.   

The death positive movement seeks to restore our familiarity and comfort with death as an extension of life by bringing dying back into the home and supporting those who wish to be involved in every step of the dying process. 

Though death is now unfamiliar to most of us, we see great benefit in bringing awareness to death and dying. We recognize that fear of pain and grief in the face of losing life can make it difficult to talk about death or to consider caring for our loved one’s remains after death. The death positive movement seeks to bring the support and open conversation necessary to restore these aspects of the grieving process to their rightful place.